April 3, 2009

There is good news and bad news about soft drinks. According to Mintel, a research group, 15 million soda drinkers made a switch over the 5 years between ’03 and ’08. But what did they switch to? Half of the soda drinkers switched to “diet” soda! My opinion, as you all know by now, is that I wouldn’t drink either, but that “fake” sweet is much more dangerous to our health. And you also know that the carbonation is dangerous for our bone health.

But back to the statistics: Wellness and making choices strikes a chord in their research!

“As health and wellness awareness grows, more people are turning away from old-fashioned pop and looking for healthier, lower calorie drinks, as well as drinks that offer the functionality to meet their specific lifestyle needs.”

People are choosing healthier, non- soda options: 24 million more Americans drank bottled water in 2008 than in 2003, energy drink users nearly doubled from 2003 to 2008 (to 34.5 million from 17.4 million) and 11 million adults started drinking sports drinks.

BUT WHAT ABOUT WATER? Mintel’s research showed that only 34% said they’re drinking more water and less carbonated beverages to manage weight or other health conditions, compared to 2006. Cited as reasons to drink less soda were weight control, health risks of high-fructose corn syrup, less artificially sweetened beverages because of risks.

“During the past few years, health and wellness issues have come to the forefront of people’s minds, and we see that strongly reflected their changing beverage choices.”

That’s great, but WHAT ABOUT WATER?

According to Fooducate.com “Soft drinks are a very lucrative market for the food industry. The raw materials are dirt cheap (water, sugar, food coloring), and the returns are very high.” And don’t forget that Pepsi and Coca Cola now hae huge water divisions, bringing us more plastic bottles and tap water of questionable value.

(I add: Water has no calories, tap water is practically free, I’d rather filter my water and drink water, and tea. Why not invest in a good water filter ? Check out Nikken’s PiMag Technology and drink filtered and energized water for pennies.)